The Niagorn
by Jessie Wings
Summary: The Fourth Doctor and Leela once again fail to arrive where they intended, and instead arrive in time to see a battle of wills between a human colony and the Niagorn...
1. A Raving Lunatic

Three dragon-like creatures stepped softly through the forest. They had been sent to gather food for the group, but they knew that if they dared to make a sound, the colonists would catch them. One of the colonists, a female child about the age of eleven, spotted them. This female child was blue-eyed and had long, blonde hair somewhere between wavy and curly, and something inquisitive and innocent about her face.

"Father!" she exclaimed, attracting the attention of a nearby tall, athletic man. He was also the leader of the small colony.

"Father!" the young girl repeated. "Look over there!"

The colony's leader looked in the direction his daughter pointed, and saw shades of purple amongst the greenery.

"They look famished," the girl decided, continuing to look at the shades of purple.

"They do, Olivia," the father agreed. He took his daughter's word for it. "You there!" he yelled at some guards that (inexplicably) accompanied them. "You see those beasts over there?" He pointed through the trees at the purple shadows. "Take them back to the dome."

* * *

Not far away, an insanely young female scientist typed diligently at a large computer. This was Elissa, a dark-haired girl who was one of many young people chosen to carry out simplistic tasks in the colony – a colony which, thanks to that policy, was now 75 made up of people between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. Elissa herself was sixteen.

Elissa looked up as a purple dragon was brought in by a team of six guards, on a stretcher. Of course, 'purple dragon' was hardly the proper term for them – they had been termed the Niagorn.

"Is he injured?" Elissa asked immediately.

All the six guards shook their head rapidly, and one replied, "no, Miss Castle. Just hungry."

Elissa glared at the six men. "What am I meant to do about it?" she inquired. "The only thing Holmes'll spare me is milk. That's not even a _food_. Besides, it's clearly obvious that..."

"It's not our fault, miss," the same guard protested. Elissa was a rather intimidating sixteen year old. "Holmes's orders were that you were to feed the thing and let it go before it gets too dark."

The young scientist visibly stiffened, but the troop of guards stomped out before she had a chance to yell at them. Elissa turned around to see that the creature had opened its eyes, but was apparently unable to move. Elissa couldn't understand why, and thought maybe the idiotic guards had used a tranquilliser on it.

"Please don't panic," she cooed gently. "I won't hurt you."

Elissa didn't try to touch the creature, and realised that due to the language barrier, not to mention the fact that it was an alien creature, her gentle words were being lost on it anyway. She retrieved a bowl from a nearby table, but instead of crossing to the table for milk, she crossed to the sink. She filled the bowl with water, and returned to the perfectly still Niagorn.

"Really, I won't hurt you," she assured the beast, despite the fact that it wouldn't understand her. "Here – water. You won't get sick from this stuff."

* * *

As the sun faded into the sky, eleven-year-old Olivia stared languidly out of her bedroom window. From it, she could see two of the three moons around the planet, named Hope and Charity by the humans. Faith could be seen from her window at a different time – not sunset. She was interrupted by a welcome knock on her door. She turned her blue eyes away from they rapidly appearing moons and towards her door.

"Come in," she called. The door slid away to reveal Elissa. Unusually, Elissa and Olivia had become good friends despite the five-year age difference. Elissa sometimes rather mothered Olivia, as Olivia's real mother was still on Earth.

"Your father," Elissa began, "is a raving lunatic."

Olivia rolled her eyes. It was common knowledge that Elissa liked arguing and complaining for no reason, and even more common reason that when Elissa actually had a reason to complain, it was usually to do with Olivia's father and the colony's leader: Aaron Holmes.

"What's he done now?" Olivia asked wearily. Maybe staring at Hope and Charity hadn't been so boring.

"He left instructions that the captive Niagorn was to be fed only milk!"

"Oh," Olivia replied. Complaining for no reason, as usual. "He did look hungry."

"Milk isn't even a food!" Elissa yelled.

"Oh yeah," Olivia replied vaguely. "I still think captive's a bit harsh, Elissa."

"Fine then. Victims."

"That's even _more harsh_, you know."

"Is it? Those bumbling guards used their tranquillising guns on the poor thing. Terrified it half to death, I should think. And all they'll spare to it, when it wakes, is milk! Haven't they noticed how ill they become?"

"Why are you asking me?" Olivia inquired. "I've only ever seen them from a distance."

"But even from a distance it's painfully obvious..." Elissa stopped ranting and turned to the eleven-year-old. "Come with me," she said. "I didn't give the latest one milk, but the tranquilliser's still rather in effect. I'll show you."

"But it's dark out," Olivia protested. "Father'd kill me if..."

Elissa smiled vaguely and recited a rule. "Children at the age of twelve or younger may only leave the dome during the night if accompanied by someone older than that age, and for a maximum time of twenty minutes."

Olivia made a resigned face. "All right," she grumbled. "Where are we going?"

* * *

"I don't understand," Elissa muttered. "It was perfectly still when I left it here, and that was ten minutes ago. Moved only when I moved it."

Olivia couldn't quite understand the implications. "Do you mean we have to follow it?" she whimpered.

"The Niagon might not be safe," Elissa replied. "Of course we have to."

Olivia scowled. "It's dark, it's cold..."

"No it isn't. It's still eighteen degrees."

"It's still dark," Olivia argued. "Besides, I'm only allowed out here for twenty minutes."

"It can't have lumbered so far," Elissa told the younger girl impatiently. "We'll be back at the dome in good time."

"All right," Olivia said resignedly, following Elissa through the dark wood. You would have thought that with three moons there's be thrice as much moonlight, but there wasn't...

Several minutes in, a bunch of shadows suddenly descended from the trees and surrounded them. To the casual listener what ensued sounded like a bunch of growling and snarling, but Elissa realised the growls and snarls varied quite rapidly in pitch and volume, and it occurred to her that the Niagorn – always dismissed as stupid animals – were actually comparable to land-dwelling dolphins, if such things existed.

Which meant that, if the Niagorn had a language, the two Terran girls were in trouble.

* * *

The Doctor stood at his white control panel, staring at various instruments and readings. This Doctor had a mop of curly hair, a multicoloured, six-metre long scarf and a grey jacket. Astonishingly, it wasn't even _cold_.

On the other side of the control panel, there stood a brunette, tanned girl wearing dark animal skins. She had blue eyes and an impatient stare on her face. This was Leela.

There was one more animate object in this room: a robot dog, about half a metre high, named K9. He was noisy and broke down a lot – but he was sometimes very useful.

"Where are we going?" Leela asked the Doctor.

"Ganda Delta," the Doctor told Leela.

"Oh," Leela replied, none the wiser. "When will we get there?"

The Doctor shrugged. "About... thirty seconds or so..."

"Then it is not far away," Leela surmised. "Is Ganda Delta a nice planet?"

"It's not a planet," the Doctor grinned. "It's a living moon. Ganda itself is a planet of liquid water – not habitable – but its fourth moon is."

Leela blinked. "Is Ganda Delta a nice moon, then?"

"Oh, yes," the Doctor replied. "Sunny... peaceful... just about the size of Earth..."

"So there are no monsters?" Leela queried.

"No, no monsters..." the Doctor frowned suddenly. "You don't _want_ to find monsters, do you Leela?"

Leela was saved from answering by the shudder of the TARDIS as it landed – on Ganda Delta, if all went well.

The Doctor and Leela stepped outside the TARDIS, closing the door behind them. They were surrounded by lush, green forest. Rays of sunlight filtered in through the thick canopy.

"Isn't this a lovely place?" the Doctor beamed.

Leela stared. "There's no one here," she commented.

"Well, you have to find them first," the Doctor explained. "I wonder if we're in the right time to see Tiffany..."

"Tiffany?" Leela asked. "Who is Tiffany?"

The Doctor ignored Leela. "Oh, I haven't seen her in the longest time... I wonder if she'd recognise me..."

"Why would Tiffany not recognise you?" Leela asked, puzzled.

"Oh, well, I've changed my appearance a bit since then," the Doctor mused. "Recoloured and curled my hair, gained dress sense... that kind of thing..."

Leela didn't think he could have _gained_ dress sense, judging by what he was wearing, but didn't say so.

"Where will this Tiffany's tribe be?"

Unknown to the Doctor or Leela, they were not on Ganda Delta at all.


	2. The Search

Most in the dome had not slept. Everyone except children and those with very important duties was out in the dense greenery, hunting for the two missing girls, Elissa and Olivia. Even the leader of the colony was out looking, considering a missing daughter more important than the managing of the colony on Minerva. He could miss one day of work, surely. He felt the colonists would understand – and from the looks of things, they were!

For the last ten hours, generous colonists had given their time up to look, but had turned up no trace. They had shouted loudly, covered the dense forest in a ten-kilometre radius (which was slowly spreading to eleven-kilometre, then twelve-kilometre, and so on), but to no avail!

Holmes wondered what could possibly have happened to the young scientist and his younger daughter. There were plenty of places they could have gone. The forest area surrounding the dome stretched out for hundreds of kilometres, and was not easy to navigate in. A nearby river supplied water – and Elissa and Olivia could have fallen into it. Maybe they'd stumbled into a Niagorn group...

Holmes shook his head. They'd only been gone ten hours. That was short enough to remain hopeful.

"Do you want to continue the search, sir?"

The unreasonably cheerful female voice startled the man, who had obviously been absorbed in his thoughts.

The man turned to look at the teenager, who was fifteen, and short despite her confidence.

"Yes," he replied, vaguely aware of what he was saying, "but you can decrease numbers. Everyone needs their sleep."

"Right," the girl replied, nodding. "Maybe you should sleep then, sir." Satisfied that she hadn't said the wrong thing – which she had – she went off into the forest to recall colonists.

The girl was right, of course. He did need sleep. Unfortunately, being the colony's leader meant that he would have to assure those asleep and peacefully unaware of the disaster unfolding outside. He would be exhausted by the time the day was over, he was sure.

Elissa Castle had a lot to explain.

* * *

Olivia Holmes stirred. Luckily for her, it was summer on this alien planet, and therefore quite warm, but she was still uncomfortable.

Olivia opened her eyes. She was still trapped inside the underground stone structure. She could understand her scientist friend's astonishment, but still wasn't sure why she was interested.

Similarly, she also couldn't understand why Elissa was awake and enthusiastically examining some alien inscriptions on the wall.

"Did you eat all the food?" Olivia mumbled.

Elissa turned. "Oh. I'd rather distracted myself," Elissa replied. "We haven't been given any. And these inscriptions are rather more fascinating than moaning about an empty stomach."

Olivia stared at the seemingly random shapes on the wall. "What do they mean?" she asked suspiciously.

"Well, I've got no idea. I'm sure they'd be even more fascinating if I did know," Elissa said by way of response, turning around to examine them again.

"You're not going to try and learn, are you?" Olivia asked, groaning. "We should be trying to escape."

"Don't be ridiculous," Elissa snapped. "We've never known anything about Niagorn culture before, and now we have this big chance... oh, and, besides," she added hastily, "there isn't a way out. I checked."

Olivia doubted Elissa had actually been looking for ways out at the time, but she had to admit that it did seem that way. Right near the ceiling there were a few holes that might have been big enough to accommodate them, but it was several metres above their heads.

"I'm hungry," Olivia complained.

"Well, wait," Elissa instructed. "I doubt we can find any food in here."

"Hmpf," Olivia grumbled. She almost wished it had been winter, just so she'd have another thing to complain about.

* * *

"Oi!"

Leela and the Doctor halted at a man's shout. Before long, a brown-haired man ran up to the duo.

"Who are you?"

The Doctor stared at the short man for a moment before replying. "I'm the Doctor," he said, "and that's Leela. Who are you?"

"Where'd you spring from, then?" the man continued.

"Well, Mr Where'd-you-spring-from-then, I'm very pleased to meet you," the Doctor smiled and tried to shake the man's hand.

"That's not what I mean," the man snapped. "Where'd you come here from?"

"You wouldn't believe me," the Doctor warned.

"Try me."

"Pluto," the Doctor told him. "I told you you wouldn't believe me..."

"You didn't seriously expect me to, did you?" the man snapped.

"You asked us where we came from and we told you," Leela told the man. "You did not want us to make something up?"

The man's eyes happened across the knife held at Leela's side. "Um, no..."

"Hey, Nicko!" added a new voice. Before long, a dark-haired teenager bounded towards the small group. "You should be in bed," she added.

"Is your name really Nicko?" the Doctor snorted.

The man termed Nicko glared at the teenager. "_No_," he growled. "That's what my baby cousin _Anger_ calls me. My name's Nicholas."

The teenager pulled a face. "_Not_ Anger," she snapped. "My name is _Angela_." She turned to look at the two newcomers. "Hi," she beamed. "Do you know anything about two missing girls?"

"_Angela!_" Nicholas shouted.

"What?" Angela looked stunned.

"They might have had something to do with it!"

Leela unsheathed the knife at her side. "Do you think we kidnapped two girls?" she demanded.

"Now, now," Angela protested. "You can't go waving knives at people like that. Of course we don't, do we Nicko?"

Nicholas glared at his cousin. "No," he growled, "we don't."

"Good," Leela said, sheathing her knife again.

"I don't suppose you could show us to where you're staying?" the Doctor asked politely.

"'Course," Angela smiled cheerily. "As long as your friend keeps her knife sheathed, at least."

The Doctor stared at Leela as an instruction to do what Angela said.

Leela sighed. "I will."

* * *

Aaron Holmes was not remotely cheerful. He was exhausted as well, having stayed up half the night anxiously hoping his daughter would turn up.

"Sorry, sir," Angela apologised, as she, her cousin, the Doctor and Leela all stumbled into the room.

Holmes rubbed his eyes. "That's all right. Who are these people?"

"Ah, well, I'm the Doctor," the Doctor informed the sleepy man, "and that's Leela. Who are you?"

"Aaron Holmes," Holmes said, then proceeding to yawn. "Forgive me, I didn't get any sleep."

"Something to do with the missing girls?"

"Who told you about that?"

"The girl standing behind me," the Doctor explained, pointing behind him at Angela.

"Angela!"

"I know, I know," Angela made a face. "Nicholas already told me."

"Anyway," the Doctor began, "maybe Leela and I could help in some way?"

"You don't even know what Olivia looks like," Holmes moaned. "Oh, and nor Elissa."

"Well, no... but could anything possibly have happened to them? Such as falling into a ravine, or..."

"Only the Niagorn," Holmes stated. "I hope the Niagorn didn't capture them – they're only animals."

"Ah," the Doctor said. "What do you know about the Niagorn?"

"Not a lot," Holmes admitted. "We do a survey once every six months, but we don't learn a lot... just that the Niagorn population is declining."

"_Declining?_" the Doctor queried.

"I don't know why," Holmes said wearily. "We think it has something to do with declining food supply."

"Oh. Is it possible that these Niagorn are intelligent in some way?" the Doctor asked.

Holmes shrugged and yawned. "Maybe," he said dazedly. "Probably not, though."

The Doctor considered this. "Aaron," he declared. "I've decided that Leela and I will search for your missing loved one and her friend."

Before giving anyone the chance to protest, he strolled out of the room – rapidly pursued by Leela.

"How did he know...?" Holmes asked in wonder.

"Sir?" Angela chirped.

"He knew Olivia was close to me," Holmes sighed. "Or am I dreaming?"

Nicholas and Angela exchanged a glance. "You ought to get some sleep, sir," Angela told the man.

Holmes yawned again. "Maybe, Angela, maybe..."

* * *

"You're not understanding any of that," Olivia snapped at her friend.

"I don't need to," Elissa replied. "I mean, just look at these lines!"

"I don't want to," the younger girl mumbled. "I want _food_, not a lesson..."

"They haven't been carved," Elissa told Olivia, unperturbed. "The lines are far too smooth... and straight... or else perfectly curved..."

"Who cares?"

Elissa turned to glare at the girl. "Don't you possess _any_ scientific curiosity?" she demanded. "To get those lines so smooth, the Niagorn would have to have a... a _laser_ of some sort. And that's always been assumed too technological for these creatures to achieve..."

"But," Olivia grunted, "that doesn't explain why you've been staring at those funny symbols for half the morning."

"Oh, I haven't been _solely_ staring at them for half the morning," Elissa smiled. "I've been thinking about the food supply, too. While _you_ were complaining about it."

Olivia glared at her friend. "But I'm hungry," was her feeble excuse.


	3. Messengers

Holmes, despite thinking that he should have gone to bed, hadn't. Instead, he'd managed to fall asleep while writing an entry in his log about the incident. He quickly awoke when the electric door to his room noisily slid open.

Holmes coughed. "Um, Edward."

"Sir," the young man said, "three Niagorn have been found attacking the door to the dome."

"What?" Holmes became suddenly alert. "I thought they were non-hostile!"

"So did we all, sir."

"Is everyone safe?"

"Oh yes, sir," Edward nodded, "everyone's fine. The Niagorn only attacked with their claws."

"Well, they are only beasts," Holmes nodded in satisfaction. "Where are they now?"

"Science wing," Edward replied. "Sedated. When Miss Castle comes back, she can look over them. However..."

"However what?"

"Well, one of the beasts was carrying a wad of bark. Strange symbols were etched into them," Edward babbled.

"Any idea what they mean?" Holmes asked.

"Oh, no sir. When the scientists come back..."

Holmes felt a pang as he remembered his missing daughter for what seemed like the fortieth time that day.

"Yes, Edward," Holmes nodded. "You can go now."

* * *

"Look at these hieroglyphics, Leela."

Leela peered at the strange symbols and frowned. "Do you know what they mean?" she asked.

"Not the foggiest – but they look nice."

"There is no reason to look at them if you do not know what they mean," Leela announced. "We must move on. You promised."

* * *

Three purple Niagorn lay, still and silent, in an empty laboratory. They had been sedated. With no qualified scientists around to feed them or survey them, they just had to be kept sedated until one of them woke up – or was rescued.

A guard kept watch over them. He was hovering hesitantly in the corner when he saw one of the beasts move. It shook its head from side to side, and started to sit up.

"'Ere," the guard called. "Don't you wake up on me – I can't sedate you again!"

The Niagorn ignored the man's protest, hissing indeterminably before thundering off the large trolley onto the floor.

"No!" the guard yelled. "Go back to sleep!"

The Niagorn glanced around the room before its eyes fell on its two companions, both as still and silent as before. It turned its massive head towards the guard and bellowed.

"Go away!" cried the miserable guard. "I don't want to be eaten!"

The Niagorn had no intention of eating the guard, but it nevertheless got shot by the guard's stun gun before long. Its fall made several beakers shatter on the floor.

"Um..." the guard looked back into the corridor, yelling, "I could use some help here!"

* * *

The Doctor and Leela entered a huge underground chamber. It was decorated similarly to the passages, covered in the same small symbols. Even the ceiling – metres above anyone's head – was decorated intricately.

However, the first thing either traveller noticed about the underground chamber was that it had a large alien creature sitting in the middle of it.

"Uhm, hello," the Doctor waved. "Are you by any chance a Niagorn?"

The Niagorn's voice was almost snakelike: a low hiss, however words were clearly distinguishable. "How do you know our language?" it hissed. "No Earth man knows our language."

"Well, we do," the Doctor avoided the question. "Who are you?"

The Niagorn, in return, ignored the Doctor's question altogether. "You are not an Earth man," it decided. "Why are you here, alien?"

"I'm here on behalf of the human colony," the Doctor announced, grandly tossing one impossibly long stretch of scarf over his shoulder. "They have good reason to believe that you've kidnapped two younger colonists."

"Did you encounter our messengers?" the Niagorn hissed.

"Messengers?" the Doctor asked. "Can't say I did, no... what message were they delivering?"

"You are not an Earth man," the alien hissed. "It does not concern you."

"Now, look. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong, can I?" the Doctor smiled.

"Earthmen make us sick," the Niagorn explained, hissing slowly. "Our numbers are depleting."

Leela felt it was about time she had a say in things. "Just because your tribe is dying does not mean you can kill the colonists. It is not fair."

"We did not kill them!" the Niagorn hissed angrily. "They are fine! They are perfectly safe! We are not monsters!"

"Where are they, then?" Leela asked. "If you know that they are safe, you must know where they are."

"We delivered a message to the Earthmen." The creature hissed very quickly now. "We will trade the Earthmen for peace."

"Don't you think that's a little excessive?" the Doctor enquired thoughtfully.

"No."

"Why wasn't asking very nicely an option?"

The Niagorn almost seemed to sigh. "Earthmen do not understand us."

"Forgive my ignorance," the Doctor persisted, "but if they don't understand you, how were your messengers supposed make contact, hm?"

"They carried written messages," the Niagorn's hiss almost sounded bored. "We thought the humans might understand them."

"Ahem," the Doctor cleared his throat. "If I might make a suggestion."

"If you desire to, alien."

"The colonists understand both Leela and I," the Doctor stated. "Maybe we could negotiate on your behalf."

"That is a good suggestion," the Niagorn decided after a little thought.

"Excellent," beamed the Doctor. "Come along, Leela."

"No," the Niagorn bellowed. "You will go alone, alien."

"What?" the Doctor asked. "That was not a condition!"

"It is our way," the Niagorn replied. "Good luck, alien."

"But –"

"Good bye."

Leela turned towards the Doctor. "I am a warrior," she reminded him. "I am able to take care of myself."

"That's what worries me," the Doctor said quietly. "Goodbye, then. I'll see you in... oh, an hour, I should think."

"Goodbye, Doctor."

* * *

And so the Doctor tumbled through the green forestry, in order to negotiate.

But first, he had to explain Leela's absence.

"What do you mean, the Niagorn kept her?" Holmes demanded furiously.

"It's not that hard, really," the Doctor pointed out.

"No, of course not," Holmes admitted. "The Niagorn are barbarians!"

"Must you be so narrow-minded?" the Doctor demanded. "They're not like you, you know – and it just so happens that whatever you're doing to them is making them quite ill!"

"That is no excuse," Holmes snapped. "They've overreacted quite enough."

"_Overreacted?_ Their people, their way of life, it's _dying_, you understand. If humanity was dying out, wouldn't you do just the same? Wouldn't _you_ overreact?"

"We would not descend to such levels," the leader announced confidently. "They've taken Olivia, Elissa... and now your companion. We don't know what they could do next."

"Well, it's definitely not –"

"We're organising an attack," Holmes decided. "If you'll leave, please."

"You're making a big mistake, you know," the Doctor pointed out. "What do you think the Niagorn'll do if they find you're planning an attack, eh?"

"Nothing," came the bitter response. "Now go, Doctor."

* * *

Leela, thrown into the same room as the two captured colonists, found herself the subject of two startled stares.

"Who are you?" Elissa demanded shrewdly.

"Never mind that," Olivia said immediately after. "Do you have any food?"

Leela paused before answering. "My name is Leela," she replied, "and I do not carry food."

"Aww," Olivia sighed. "I haven't eaten since _yesterday_."

"Who are you?" Leela directed her question to both girls.

"I'm Elissa," Elissa replied. "She's Olivia." There was a pause in conversation after that as no one quite knew what to say.

"Do you know the way out?" Olivia asked eventually.

"I do not."

Olivia groaned. "So... hungry..."

* * *

"Hullo, K9!"

The Doctor had decided that he should prevent the attack on the Niagorn, and to that end he went back to the TARDIS to collect his faithful robot dog.

"Greetings, Master," K9 replied typically.

"Now, listen, K9, you and I are going to head to a large dome, all right? While there, we – or you – will destroy their weapon collection! Or at least the vast majority of it."

"Affirmative," K9 replied. "Query: what is the dome?"

The Doctor sighed. "Well, when we get there I can show you."

"Affirmative."

* * *

The Doctor and K9 made their way, unchallenged, down the annoyingly white corridors.

"You would think," the Doctor had announced, "that colonies would think of more variety in their colour schemes. Such as orange. What do colonies have against the colour orange, K9?"

"Unable to answer, Master."

Eventually, through clever guesswork and the fact that it was advertised on various signs along the way, the Doctor and K9 got to the armoury.

"Now, K9," the Doctor said, "cut through that door, all right?"

"Affirmative."

* * *

"Yay! Food!" Olivia beamed as she noticed a tray of assorted plants that had been put there while she'd been banging her head against the wall complaining about it.

"What is it?" Leela asked curiously, staring at the green and white leaves and wondering how they constituted food.

"They're a native plant," Elissa explained matter-of-factly. "Though we had no idea... this must be what the Niagorn eat!"

"And me," Olivia smiled.

"What? No, Olivia – you can't eat this!"

Olivia looked heartbroken. "Why not?"

"Firstly," Elissa stated bossily, "we don't know if it's safe to eat. Secondly, it could tell us all about the Niagorn."

"Why wasn't it studied already then?"

"It probably was," Elissa answered, "but I don't know the findings of every plant on this planet, you know."

Olivia was crestfallen. "So... even though it's food... I can't eat it?"

"No."

* * *

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The Doctor tried to gesture to K9 to stop blasting the door, but K9 evidently wasn't looking.

The young woman who'd noticed the Doctor walked closer, and looked from the metal door with a hole in it to the metal dog.

"Your dog's blasting the door in!"

"Um... well..."

"Affirmative," K9 chirped.

"You can't do that!" she complained.

"But I have to prevent the attack on the Niagorn!"

The young woman stared incredulously at the Time Lord before half turning away and shouting, "_GUARDS!_"


	4. The Battle Starts

Olivia stared longingly at the plate of tantalising green and white leaves, having already been told – several times, as a matter of fact – to stop talking about it.

Elissa was, almost out of habit, analysing the symbols on the wall. She suspected it'd be an exceedingly long time before she actually understood any of the symbols, or whether she'd even understand the message after understanding the symbols, but she _was_ after all looking at them out of habit.

Leela was not exactly looking at the wall, or at least not consciously, but concentrating on her hearing.

"I hear fighting," Leela decided aloud, attracting two largely bewildered stares.

"Oh, that was me," Olivia said finally. "I was arguing with myself over whether to annoy Elissa by eating, or annoy my stomach my not eating."

"Do not be foolish," Leela snapped. "Can you not hear? It sounds almost like..."

A particularly loud bang made the two bewildered stares cease.

"A battle?" Elissa asked, directing her question mainly at herself.

"Are your people attacking?" Leela enquired.

"Well, I hope not," Elissa showed off a weak, unconvincing smile. "I mean... well..."

"I'll die hungry!" Olivia announced, alarmed.

"Yes... wait! Olivia!" Elissa scowled.

"But I'll be hungry in heaven and then I wouldn't enjoy it or anything!" Olivia moaned.

"You would also die childish," Leela stated, bluntly.

"But I _am_ a child," was Olivia's wide-eyed protest, "and -"

Elissa sighed in exasperation. "Consider my point retracted," she announced. "And Olivia, can't you please just _forget_ about your stomach for once? Please?"

* * *

The Doctor was busily making his sonic screwdriver hum at the door.

This was not a ridiculous time-wasting activity, but rather an attempt to unlock the door, get out and negotiate peace. However he could manage it.

K9 had been confiscated, of course. Just as K9 had been busily stunning various people, his power supply ran out (something the Doctor would have to remember to fix some day) and so, of course, the Doctor and K9 had been confined. Well, not K9 so much. He was, after all, out of power.

The door was taking an inordinate amount of time to open, stupid thing. About as infuriating as the time Leela had decided to hand herself in to the police, seeing it as the honourable thing to do. It had taken weeks to get off that planet.

Now, where exactly _was_ that planet? Well, it was somewhere with a particularly good jailing system, anyway...

Finally! The door! It had taken its time, but never mind.

Now, he just had to hurry.

* * *

The loud noises had reached a furore in the underground room.

"I can't hear myself think!" Elissa announced, irritably.

"I can't hear my stomach pestering me!" Olivia announced, rather too cheerfully to sound anywhere even approaching intelligent. "I'm cured!"

Leela didn't reply to either girl, instead wandering to the wall, which like all the other walls in the room had the funny symbols on it.

"How far back into the stone do these markings reach?" she asked thoughtfully, with remarkable clarity for someone who was talking at normal volume during a raging battle.

Elissa waved a hand. "No idea!" she shouted above the noise.

Leela withdrew her knife and jammed it into one of the best-shaped markings she could see.

"No!" Elissa shouted. "Future surveys!"

Leela ignored Elissa, calmly withdrawing a _second_ knife from her belt. She'd taken to carrying two knives once she noticed that her knives kept getting confiscated by bug-eyed monsters – or irritating humans – with nothing better to do, or so it seemed, than to steal weapons from unsuspecting passer-bys.

She then proceeded to calmly jab the second knife into the wall, too, about an arm-span away from the last knife, and a little higher. She then started to use the knives and markings as suction cups on glass, edging her way up towards the large-ish, tempting hole that bordered onto the ceiling.

"You can't escape without us!" Olivia protested feebly. Leela did not appear to be listening, heaving herself out of the chamber and into the glaring sunlight, taking her two knives, and running off.

* * *

K9 was just not anywhere to be found, decided the Doctor, and in any case two and a half minutes was far too much time searching for a robot dog that could be recovered at a later time – or date, if need be.

So instead, the Doctor headed outside, ignoring the stares of people still in the dome – hiding himself from them wherever possible.

* * *

The Niagorn and the colonists were engaged in battle. Of course. People always thought war was the best way to resolve social differences, even with billions of years of history to prove them wrong.

"Doctor!"

The Doctor turned, and grinned. "Leela!" he exclaimed, then adding, "I thought you were supposed to stay with the Niagorn."

Leela shrugged. "I decided that hostage is not a safe position during battle," she responded. "Now how do we stop them fighting?"

"I thought you liked fighting," the Doctor pointed out. Leela shook her head vehemently.

"I do not like it when people fight for no reason," Leela replied. "You are not a warrior unless you fight sensibly."

"Wise words, Leela – now, think. How can we stop the fight?"

"We shall make K9 destroy all the weapons," Leela suggested, unaware of the Doctor's previous attempt.

"That could be a little difficult, Leela," the Doctor pointed out. "Both sides will invariably notice, you know – most likely before we've finished."

"This is another of your thinking games," Leela said accusingly.

The Doctor grinned. "It's not all that difficult, Leela."

"When you say things like that, it is annoying," Leela informed her companion, all the while checking her shoe. "Tell me the solution, Doctor."

"Hostages," the Doctor grinned manically. Leela stared at him strangely.

"Then they will only attack _us_," she protested adamantly.

"No, not us – we rescue the Niagorn's hostages!"

"Oh," Leela replied, inwardly very much relieved. "And then do we return them?"

"Of course," the Doctor replied. "If we keep them, did you know that both groups will probably only start to attack us?"

"I did know," Leela answered, only slightly crossly – after all, the Doctor had taken credit for her ideas before. "But we do not make them promise to stop fighting beforehand?"

"Leela, which do you think they'd be most likely to do – attack or promise?"

"If they attack then they are fools," Leela announced stifly, quickly following up with, "but they are fools. Why do you not just _tell me_ your plan, Doctor?"

"Ah, well, that would take all the fun out of it," the Doctor grinned – _again_. "Come on, Leela – there's work to be done!"


	5. Second Last Knife

Gunshots were audible throughout the Niagorn's complicated caves, and the central chamber was no exception.

"There is trouble," one Niagorn hissed to the other, with slight difficulty due to the noise. "A human is missing."

"Where did she go?" hissed the other, betraying only a slight angry tone.

"I do not know," the first Niagorn hissed humbly, nearly apologetically.

The Niagorn now sounded quite furious. "Why do you not know?" it demanded furiously.

"The others could follow!"

"I apologise," hissed the first Niagorn. "I will locate her."

The second creature's temper subsided a little – not a lot, but a little. "Very well," it hissed, "but the humans are not to know."

* * *

The colonists and the Niagorn were presently engaged in a face-off, over a clearing, which wasn't a common occurrence in this area. The colonists were using a small layer of trees to protect themselves, mostly, while three Niagorn were just standing in front of the cave, as if the bullets speeding past were of no importance. In actual fact, they had positioned themselves so that most of the humans were being hindered by trees, and those that weren't were – by an exceedingly bizarre coincidence – exceedingly bad shots. Even the ones who weren't usually bad shots.

The supply of bullets was fast running out. Colonists, for all their _supply_ of guns, do not usually actually intend to use them except in cases of dire emergency, and funnily enough dire emergencies rarely ever crop up (except when mysterious strangers known only by profession and their assistants turn up to be blamed, of course).

The Niagorn were not actually retaliating. They didn't hold any weapons (well, no visible ones at least) and their hostages were curiously absent – although that might have been a bad sign.

* * *

Back in the main chamber, a Niagorn entered, seemingly in a hurry. "I cannot find her," it hissed quickly. "She is not near us."

"She cannot be far!" hissed the more important Niagorn. "Did you search the human establishment?"

"Yes," the junior Niagorn answered quickly. "I checked every transparent panel. Unless she hides in the middle, she is not there."

"She must have hidden in the middle," responded the senior Niagorn, reasonably. "But we cannot get inside..."

There was then a silence, interrupted only by the monotonous gunshots, now blended into background noise.

"That sound annoys me," the senior Niagorn said eventually. "Make it cease."

"Pardon?"

"Bring the two remaining humans out," the Niagorn said. "Make them promise to respect our society – then return the girls."

"But we can't understand the humans," the junior Niagorn protested feebly.

"The Doctor will assist," the senior Niagorn said calmly.

"He has failed us before," the other Niagorn protested.

"Then his intelligence will force him not to fail us again. Go now, young one."

* * *

Leela and the Doctor, now equipped with a reel of rope, made their way to the hole that bordered between a rock and the ground that signified where Leela had escaped.

The rope didn't seem to be achieving anything. No one grabbed onto the rope, no one said anything like, "oh look, there's a rope!" - there was not even any noise coming from the hole.

"Hello?" the Doctor called into the hole, after a quite a bit of time had passed. "Are you in there?"

Still no reply. The Doctor turned to Leela.

"Are you sure this is the place?"

Leela nodded. "Of course I am sure," she said.

"Well, they're certainly not there now," the Doctor said, withdrawing the rope.

Leela nodded. "Doctor, the fighting has stopped."

"Has it really?" The Doctor paused to listen, then continuing with, "you know what, Leela, the fighting has stopped!"

* * *

"Sir! Sir! Siiii-iiiir..."

"I can hear," Holmes muttered angrily. "And see."

"Oh, I don't dispute that, sir," the young, brunette man said, "it's just that we'd like instructions on what to do, please."

Holmes looked away from the young man to the caves – in front of which were Olivia and Elissa, accompanied by four of the annoying purple beasts.

"Um... you see, James, I don't know exac-"

Holmes was interrupted by a fierce roar from one of the Niagorn – which, he was too far away to tell.

"Do we attack, sir?"

"No!" Holmes cried, rather too quickly for his liking. He coughed. "Certainly not, James."

James seemed puzzled. "So, basically, sir... we do nothing?"

"Precisely, James. Until the circumstances change, we do nothing."

* * *

The Doctor and Leela stood behind various conveniently-placed trees. On their right hand side, they could plainly see four Niagorn and two human girls (who Leela knew were Elissa and Olivia). The girls were being held back by the creatures, though it didn't look like it was taking the Niagorn much effort. On their left hand side, however, a row of colonists was plainly visible despite the tree trunks. Most of them were holding guns by their side, very, very loosely.

The Niagorn gave a fierce roar. It didn't seem to mean anything in particular, despite the obvious "hurry up, you humans!"

"They are not negotiating," Leela calmly stated.

"Well, apparently the tether wore thin," the Doctor said, not even looking at his assistant. "Metaphorically speaking, of course."

"The colonists are not reacting," Leela stated. "The creatures have enforced a... a stalemate."

The Doctor beamed and turned to her. "So you _were_ paying attention to chess!"

Leela glared at the Doctor. "Neither side will do anything," she said. "The humans will not move for fear, and the creatures will not move because they have the upper hand."

"You know what, Leela – I think we should interrupt!"

And so then he shed the cover of the trees, and burst into the clearing.

Obviously, Leela followed.

First, the Doctor grinned at the colonists. Then, he beamed at the Niagorn. Finally, he coughed and started to talk.

"Hello," he said. "Have you realised that you're in stalemate? I mean to say, neither of you will do anything because you're scared, and you have the upper hand." He gestured at the sides Leela had referenced while he said this.

By now, the colonists were mostly frowning or looking baffled, and the Niagorn were grimacing. Slightly.

"Are our motivations not justified?" one of the creatures hissed.

"Yes, see, while your motivations are justified, your actions clearly aren't... see, I think you'll find that most groups of people don't take kindly to having various members of their group captured and held hostage... don't you agree, Leela?"

"Yes, Doctor," Leela said faithfully. Then, of course, she withdrew a knife and held it at the nearest Niagorn. "You shall let the humans go," she ordered. "They are only children."

"Uh, thanks," Elissa said sarcastically, despite her current position. "You can't be more than ten, twelve years older than I am..."

"Ahem," the Doctor coughed loudly, trying to pull the attention away from his companion. "Do any of you humans know what they want?"

The humans stared as if the Doctor was crazy. They didn't say anything, though.

"Do you know why Niagorn numbers were decreasing?" he demanded loudly, striding towards their side of the clearing. "It was you! Something you were feeding them was just not good for them. Were you aware of that?"

While a few humans were now looking sheepish, the vast majority were just frowning in deep puzzlement, either because they weren't sure what the Doctor was talking about, or because they'd just remembered that he was supposed to have been safely locked up back at the dome.

"So isn't the solution to your problem obvious?" the Doctor bellowed. "Just stop randomly collecting them, making them sick and releasing them again... and tell them that you won't, first!"

_All_ the humans looked completely baffled now. "Um," said one – a completely baffled red-headed girl, seemingly somewhere in her late teens or twenties. "Um, um... how?"

"Quite simple, really," the Doctor assured her. "See now, come out here. And drop your weapon."

The confused girl did just that, walking slowly towards the stupidly beaming Time Lord.

"Now, you just walk up to the Niagorn, and apologise."

"Shouldn't our leader -"

The Doctor shook his head. "Politicians make lots of promises they don't keep," he pointed out. "You represent the ordinary person. Your word is worth a lot more than some leader's."

The red-head gulped at nodded, then walking up to the intimidating, significantly taller purple beast.

"I understand," she said nervously, "that we have been very, uhm, inconsiderate, of your people, and we have previously not bothered to ask you... well, whether you'd like to be surveyed or not, and would, uh, like to apologise. Furthermore," she continued, "on behalf of our small colony I would like to promise that we will not do that to you any more."

She immediately turned around to the Doctor and gulped. "How was that?" she asked weakly.

"Marvellous," the Doctor nodded. "Now, of course, you do have to live up to your promise."

Leela suddenly summoned attention again by waving her knife at the Niagorn. "She has promised you what you wanted to hear," she told it fiercely. "You must now let the colonists go."

The Niagorn nodded, and stepped sideways so that the two girls could run back to their own side of the clearing. Leela watched them run over, and then turned back to her hand to notice that her knife was gone.

"That was not fair," she scowled.

The Doctor walked up to her, almost chortling. "Come on, Leela. We've got places to go to."

"But that thing just took my knife!" Leela protested. "I thought you said it was wrong to take other people's possessions."

"Yes, well, Leela... sometimes you just have to learn how to let go," he said, leading her back in the vague direction of the TARDIS.

* * *

The Doctor and Leela entered the TARDIS. The TARDIS made no move to welcome them back, however, the lights on the console blinking as normal.

Leela was still not happy. "Doctor," she said levelly. "You do realise that I have just lost my second-last knife, don't you?"

The Doctor blinked. "Your _second_ last knife?" he asked. "I didn't even know you _had_ more than one knife!"

"My knife would always get taken from me," Leela explained. "That is why I carried a second."

"But where did you get it?" the Doctor asked – mainly because he had the knack of running into people who were mad at him for not doing something, and not paying for a knife would be a perfect example of that.

"From the kitchen," Leela explained, relieving the Doctor's wildly hyperactive imagination.

"From the kitchen? You mean we have no knives left in the kitchen?"

"Yes," Leela blinked. "That is what I said."

The Doctor sighed. "Leela, how are we going to eat dinner without a knife?"

"We shall eat soup," Leela decided. "You do not need a knife to eat soup, Doctor."

The Doctor pushed a lever, closing the door, and then flicked the dematerialisation switch. "Very well, Leela – soup it is. But tomorrow morning, we're going to a shop that sells cutlery!"

"All right," Leela agreed, almost absently. "Doctor, where is K9?"

The Doctor stared at the steadily oscillating time rotor. "Oh. Well, see, about that..."


End file.
